Mr. Hyde and the Spiritual Man
Sometimes I think we have the wrong mental image of the “natural man.” Many tend to think of the natural man as being Mr. Hyde which claws its way out of the bowels of our being, wreaking havoc and terror upon our otherwise pleasant lives. I think this demonstrates an incorrect perception of ourselves. I think of the natural man not as something that claws its way out, but something that, little by little, has clawed its way in.
We are children of God; mortal offspring of a divine being. Life exposes each of us to evils that have been festering in the world for ages. Worldly ideas, attitudes, and peer pressure work to override our spiritual DNA to infect it with one that is driven by pride, selfishness, and lust. But it is working to supplant the good that is already there—not bursting out of some dark crevice of the soul.
Why does it make a difference?
It makes a huge difference because when we encounter people on the street, our perception of their identity shouldn’t be one of inherent evil just bubbling below the surface, but of inherent good. In the Church, we call this the Light of Christ. That light is found in every person that has been born into this world as evidenced by the words which Christ spoke to Joseph Smith:
And that I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; (Doctrine and Covenants 93:2)
That light is often occluded by years of bad habits—and by bad habits, I’m not referring merely to those destructive things proscribed by the Word of Wisdom or Law of Chastity. Self-hatred and envy can bury the spiritual man in a similar way to drugs or pornography.
When we look in the mirror, who do we see? Do we allow ourselves to look beyond our BMI and see the image of the Heavenly Father who created us? Or do we only see our faults and flaws, our mistakes and misgivings, our doubts and disappointments. What we see in the mirror is often a reflection of what we see in others.
The day that we get to the point when we can look with love at ourselves, acknowledging our shortcomings but depending on the Savior to help us overcome them, I think we will come to understand the world in a different light. We will give people the benefit of the doubt. We will work to see intention and motivation instead of the often clumsy side-effects of our actions (or inactions). We’ll give ourselves and others the same love, understanding, and compassion that our Savior shows each of us each day. The natural man within us will gradually diminish as the spiritual man grows stronger.
Perhaps that is the reason why we were exposed to him in the first place—so that by confronting him, our spirits could thus become stronger than they ever could have been otherwise.
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)
